Thanks.
We've had several meetings with Human Resources and Social Development Canada and with the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. There are two fundamental parts to the temporary foreign workers program. There's the part that Human Resources Canada does, and that's to identify where there are areas in which we need to employ people. We get the blessing of the department there. Then you have to go through the immigration department to make sure that the individual who is being processed is the right person, and that they meet all the criteria to come into Canada.
Minister Solberg announced this expedited labour market program to basically allow people to get in here faster, and, as I said, Minister Flaherty put $50 million worth of money in the budget towards this.
The problem arising now is that if you take an embassy in a country such as Mexico, from which there are a large number of people coming in, you have a backlog of applications, and there are just insufficient people in our embassies, high commissions, etc., around the world to process these applications. Fifty million dollars sounds like a lot of money for the program, but when you look at the number of missions and embassies and high commissions we have all over the world, it's impossible to handle the process.
So we're saying we need to have the resources put against the program in our missions abroad, and we need to ensure that the program is expedited here.
Now on our side, I tell you, I've gone through the process to see how you can actually get people to come here. One of the problems we have is the form itself. We need to educate the hoteliers in a much better way on how to fill the form out. This is what my association is doing. It's like booking an Air Canada ticket online. If you miss two or three of the things, it wll kick you back up to the top, and you start over.
After you've booked four or five tickets, you get to know the process. It is onerous, but that's not the government's fault. We just need to educate people better in that regard. We do need the resources at Human Resources Canada and at Citizenship and Immigration to be able to make the process work better.
What we've also done is develop a tool kit, in Alberta actually, for hoteliers. I know the chairman has met with some of the individuals in that area. We're doing our part to expedite it. We just need to make sure that everybody is working together collectively in this regard.